How to take pictures of snakes

Stanislav Shinkarenko writes: “In my review of the Lower Volga reptiles, I mentioned this wonderful snake. I will not write about biology, there is a good article on Wikipedia. Quite often I am asked how I get this or that frame. In this note, my experience of shooting yellow-bellied snake and a little backstage.

(Total 20 photos)

Source: Journal/shinkarenkostas

1. The most important thing in photographing wild animals is to actually find the animal. Sometimes this is not easy. It is best to shoot snakes with us in late April - early May, at this time they have a mating season, so activity is maximum. In addition, at this time the grass is still low, and it is much easier to find a snake in it than in summer. But usually you have to sweat when searching. Sometimes I walked more than twenty kilometers and did not meet a single snake, and once at five kilometers I met three at once.

2. It is necessary for the snake to hide in the grass and it becomes almost invisible. This is the first reaction of the snake to the approach of a person. If the snake realizes that it has been noticed, it breaks away with a loud hiss of an arrow and rushes away. However, some large specimens prefer to lie down to the last, in order to then make an unexpected throw towards a person, but after that, most often they also try to escape.

3. The snake took cover in a bush of a mordovnik.

4. There is only one way out - to catch the snake. Here I am with about a meter and a half yellow belly.

Caught yellowbelly will squirm, trying to bite. The snake is not poisonous, but it has small teeth, so it can bite through human skin. It is safe for yourself and for the snake to hold it by the base of the tail.

5. And this snake is the largest I have met, its length is more than 1.8 meters.

Now it remains to release the snake in a convenient place for shooting ...

6. But the snake won't wait to be photographed. Most likely he will try to crawl away. If you get in the way of a snake, it will attack.

7. Before throwing, the snake is grouped.

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10. Then rushes straight into the camera lens.

11. Many times I tried to catch the moment of the throw, but the snake very quickly flies through the zone of sharply depicted space.

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13. And once with my friend Vladimir Gorbachev we caught a very aggressive snake.

14. Vladimir distracted the snake, and I filmed its attacks with a telephoto lens.

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17. It looked something like this

18. The yellow-bellied snake is a very temperamental snake, there is no need to make an effort for the reptile to show emotions. But to calm the snake is a more difficult task.

19. With snakes up to a meter, I do the following: I gently roll it into a spiral on my palms, then put it in the right place and cover it with my palms. The snake feels like it's in hiding. Then I slowly raise my hands, I have from a few seconds to several minutes to shoot.

20. And when I deal with large specimens, to cover which even four of my palms are not enough, I use a backpack. The snake voluntarily crawls under a backpack lying on the ground in search of shelter, after that, after waiting a few minutes, we raise the backpack and take it off.

It is important to remember - do not torment the living creatures for a long time during the shooting. And then you need to take the snake to a safe place: a bush, a ravine with cracks in the ground, a colony of gophers or other rodents so that the reptile can recover from the stress it has experienced.